Nick talks about the issue of logging in his part of the world and how it effects the area.

Cheryl: So, Nick, you've worked as an environmental scientist in Australia.

Nick: Yeah, I have. I worked in my hometown in Tasmania, and in Tasmania, there's many environmental issues, particularly involving logging of native forests there.

Cheryl: Oh, logging.

Nick: Yeah, logging.

Cheryl: I recently heard about logging problems in Brazil, I mean Belize in Central America. But what kind of logging issues do you have in Tasmania?

Nick: So, in Tasmania, there's some very old forests, maybe hundreds of thousands of years old, and some companies are destroying them, clear-felling the forest, parts of the forest there.

Cheryl: Really! What are the companies using the forests for?

Nick: To make paper actually. To make wood chips, and then turn wood chips into paper.

Cheryl: So, there all paper companies?

Nick: Mm, paper companies.

Cheryl: Oh, really.

Nick: Or paper companies in the end. So initially, loggers, the people which log, go in, they take the trees, they take the trees to big industry, which then break them to wood chips, then make them into paper. And my job was to try to find out how we could minimize the destructiveness of that operation.

Cheryl: So what kind of destructiveness would the impact of having deforestation in Tassie ...?

Nick: In Tassie?

Cheryl: Well, like many animals die obviously, and much biodiversity is taken away, but there's ways to change that process and make it better, so some solutions are instead of clear-filling, just destroying the entire forest section, just take sections out of the forests. Make the forests look like, maybe a checkerboard, so you only take patches of forests, small patches and hopefully don't kill too many animals in the process.

Cheryl: But wouldn't that still destroy a percentage of wildlife living in those patches?

Nick: Yes, yeah, it will but we still use paper everywhere in the world, so if we use paper, well, the trees need to come from somewhere, so we need to get the practice possible.

Cheryl: Mm, I see.

Nick: So, it's a bit of give-and-take.

Cheryl: We can't stop using paper right?

Nick: Oh, I think we should stop using paper. I think we can, but at this stage it's difficult maybe.

When you minimize something you make it less severe. When you minimize the destructiveness of something, you make it less destructive. Something that is destructive destroys or kills things, so to minimize it, is to lessen the damage. Notice the following:

People wear helmets to minimize the destructiveness of a crash.

Cigarettes have filters to minimize the damage they can cause to one's health.

Obviously is the adverb of obvious. When something is obvious it is easy to notice. Speakers often use the phrase obviously to let the listener know that they assume the listeners is aware of what they are saying as well. Here are some examples:

If you drink and drive, obviously you are risking your life and others.

When something is a give-and-take, that means it is a compromise. You give something and you take something, so everyone involved must give something up to receive something. Notice the following:

A successful marriage has a lot of give-and-take.

A good teacher allows some give-and-take with the students. Some class time is set aside for fun

at this stage

At this stage, I think it's difficult

The phrase 'at this stage' means 'at this time', or 'at the point we are now'. Processes happen in stages, for example, you have many stages in life, such as childhood, early adulthood, and so on. Some examples are as follows:

At this stage of my life, I just want to start a family and slow down.